CRJS 350: Final Exam Knowt

What philosophy of punishment does this quote sound like: “Her sentence should include mandatory completion of anger management classes to help address her underlying rage issues.”

Treatment/rehabilitation

What philosophy of punishment does this quote sound like: “He killed his victims in cold blood. He deserves to be executed for what he did.”

Retribution

What philosophy of punishment does this quote sound like: “I’m going to give you the maximum sentence allowed by the law. We need to set an example with your punishment to make others think twice before deciding to commit a crime like this.”

Deterrence

What philosophy of punishment does this quote sound like: “This is her third conviction for child abuse. For the safety of her kids, we have to give her prison time and remove her children from the home.”

Incapacitation

Retribution

Punishment should fit the severity of the crime

What is a term that is connected to retribution?

Lex talionis

“Just deserts”

Criminals should get what they deserve

Prevention

Assumes that something should be done to the offender to prevent future criminal activity

What are some preventative methods?

Deterrence, incapacitation, rehab/treatment

What are the two types of deterrence?

Specific and general

Specific Deterrence

Preventing a particular offender from deciding to commit another offense; teaching through punishment

General Deterrence

Preventing others in general from deciding to engage in criminal behavior; teaching by example

Incapacitation

Intended to eliminate the opportunity for an offender to commit another crime

What does incapacitation usually mean?

Incarceration

We might or might not release an offender who commits further crimes because why?

Incapacitation is based on prediction

Three Strikes Laws

Statutes enacted by states in the U.S. that require state courts to impose life sentences on persons convicted of three or more serious criminal offenses

What types of crimes qualify as serious offenses for the three strikes laws?

Felony crimes and defendant typically is given the possibility of parole with their life sentence

When did three strikes laws start to become popular?

1990’s

How many states have some form of habitual offender laws?

All of them but criteria and penalties vary widely

What is the sentence for California’s three strikes laws?

25 to life

Treatment

Anything used to induce behavioral change

What are the goals of treatment?

Elimination or reduction of dysfunctional or deviant behavior and encouragement of productive, normal behavior

What do treatment programs created in the last hundred years assume that offenders’ criminal activity can be reduced by?

Treating psychological problems such as sociopathic or paranoid personalities, addressing social problems such as alcoholism or addiction, or resolving more practical problems, such as chronic unemployment, with vocational training and job placement

What are the utilitarian justifications for punishment and why?

Treatment, incapacitation, and deterrence because we punish to benefit the majority

What are the ethical formalism justifications for punishment and why?

Retribution because we punish because the offender deserves it

What are the ethics of care justifications for punishment and why?

Restorative justice because we punish only if it’s necessary to meet the needs of all involved

How do punishments become unusual?

Punishments that are rarely used become unusual

How are there evolving standards of decency in punishment?

Punishments acceptable in the past like flogging may not be acceptable today

What does it mean to shock the conscience in punishment?

A punishment is cruel and unusual if it shocks the public

What does it mean that punishment is excessive or disproportionate?

Any punishment that is disproportionately administered or excessive to its purpose is considered wrong

What does it mean that the punishment is unnecessary?

The purpose of punishment is to deter crime; only an amount necessary to do so should be administered

What are the requirements to claim cruel and unusual punishment?

Unusual by frequency, evolving standards of decency, shock the conscience, excessive or disproportionate, unnecessary

______ is one of several states that mandate chemical or surgical castration for repeat sexual offenders before being released from prison

California

What was the first state to offer castration to repeat offenders on a voluntary basis?

Texas

Why did some repeat offenders in other states, including Illinois, Ohio, and Arkansas, have either requested or received the surgery?

As a way to bargain for a reduced sentence

Not everyone—including leading medical experts—is even convinced that ________ is effective

Castration

Stigmatizing Shaming

Rejects the individual and may have negative effects

Reintegrative Shaming

Rejects only the person’s behavior, thus creating a healthier relationship between the individual and his or her community

Give me the facts and details of the story where the judge imposed a six-year shaming punishment?

• Daniel Mirales and his wife, Eloise stole from a crime victims’ fund. She was a 16-year employee of the DA’s office

• As a part of their punishment, both were required to walk back and forth on a busy Houston street holding a sign that read, “I am a thief. I stole $250,000 from the Harris County crime victim’s fund.”

• They had to do this for 5 hours every weekend for 6 years. Additionally, they had to spend a few nights in jail each month

• They had to post a sign in front of their home that read, “The occupants of this residence, Daniel and Eloise Mirales, are convicted thieves.”

• They also had to do 400-600 hours of community service: picking up trash, cleaning graffiti, or writing homes for Habitat for Humanity

• They were also required to pay $232k in restitution within 10 years

Supermax (Supermaximum security) Prisons

The most secure facilities that have segregated the most notorious prisoners into special units

Conditions of Supermax Prisons

Extremely restrictive, including individual separation of all inmates around the clock and limited recreation activity

Critics of supermax prisons blame the conditions of supermax prisons for what?

Supermax syndrome

Supermax Syndrome

The high percentage of inmates who are suffering from some type of mental illness

Private Prisons

Built by private corporation then leased to the state or actually run by the corporation, which bills the state for the service

Do states believe that private corrections facilities are cost-effective or expensive option?

Cost-effective

Private corrections tend to pay ___ salaries than state corrections departments

Lower

Private corrections officers often transfer to what after they are trained?

State corrections departments

Turnover is ____ in both private and state corrections

High

What was the percentage of public support for capital punishment in 1966?

44%

What was the percentage of public support for capital punishment in the late 90s?

75-80%

What was the percentage of public support for capital punishment in 2008?

63%

What was the percentage of public support for capital punishment in 2024?

53%

Abolished

Voted to eliminate

How many states have the death penalty?

27

Moratorium

Temporary pause

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against executing who?

The mentally ill, the mentally handicapped, and juveniles

What is the utilitarian justification for the death penalty?

Permanent incapacitation of serious offenders will protect society; the death penalty results in general deterrence which benefits society

What is the ethical formalism justification for the death penalty?

The act of punishing someone according to the severity of their crime is good and an end to itself, regardless of the outcome; it is the duty of the CJ system to punish those who have committed serious and harmful acts

What is the religious ethics justification for the death penalty?

Consistent with “an eye for an eye”

What is the ethics of care justification for the death penalty?

The death penalty may meet the needs of all concerned in situations where the victims’ family wants an execution, the offender would rather die than spend life in prison, and society feels satisfied/safer with the offender permanently incapacitated

What is the utilitarian justification against the death penalty?

Executions are costly to the public, and may not deter others who don’t believe they’ll get caught

What is the ethical formalism justification against the death penalty?

If the act of taking someone else’s life is inherently wrong, regardless of the circumstances, then use of the death penalty is inherently bad

What is the religious ethics justification against the death penalty?

“Thou shalt not kill”

What is the ethics of care justification against the death penalty?

Executing someone may not meet the needs of all concerned if any of the above is not the case

Who is considered a correctional professional?

Correctional officers and supervisors, probation and parole officers, and treatment professionals

What does the ACA Code of Ethics do?

Outlines formal ethics for correctional officers and other correctional professionals

What does ACA stand for?

American Correctional Association

According to the ACA Code of Ethics, members shall what?

• Report any corrupt or unethical behavior in which there is sufficient evidence to justify review

• Respect and protect the civil and legal rights of all individuals

• Refrain from using their positions to secure personal privileges or advantages

• Refrain from accepting any gifts, services, or favors that are or appear to be improper or imply an obligation inconsistent with the free and objective exercise of professional duties

• Refrain from discriminating against any individual because of race, gender, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, age, disability, etc.

In the ACA Code of Ethics, members shall report any corrupt or unethical behavior can also be known as what?

Whistle blowing

What is the informal code of ethics in correctional officer subculture?

• Always go to the aid of another officer

• Don’t rat

• Don’t be a white hat

• Never make an officer look bad in front of inmates

• Always support an officer in a dispute with an inmate

• Always support officer sanctions against inmates

• Don’t lug drugs

• Maintain officer solidarity against all outside groups

What does lugging drugs mean?

Smuggling drugs

What is a white hat?

Any correctional professional whose actions could be perceived as showing too much sympathy to the inmates

Correctional officers have a full range of control, including denial of _______ and application of physical _______

Liberty; force

What are some of the discretionary power correctional officers have?

Charging an inmate with a disciplinary infraction versus delivering a verbal reprimand

How do disciplinary committees also exercise discretion?

Making a decision to punish an inmate for an infraction

What do treatment professionals have the discretion to do?

Writing parole reports and making decisions on classification

Both guards and inmates generally prefer to live in _____

Peace

Both guards and inmates feel they must take _____ when conflict occurs

Sides

Reciprocity

Officers return favors to inmates; may become dependent on exchange of favors to maintain discipline/get inmates to comply with basic tasks or expectations in which in return, officers may overlook inmate infractions and allow a degree of favoritism

Officers have the power to make life ______ for inmates that they do not like

Difficult

If officers become personally involved with inmates, what is compromised?

Their professionalism

An alliance sometimes forms between guards and inmates that is not unlike ____________ relationships

Foreman-employee

“You can be friendly with inmates, but you can never ______ them”

Trust

What kinds of officers get used to living with the inconsistency of being nice to inmates but not trusting them?

Mature ones

When did overt physical force stopped being used routinely in U.S. prisons?

1980s

“Tune-Ups”

Lessons taught to inmates by Texas prison guards that involved verbal humiliation, profanity, shoves, kicks, and head/body slaps

Tucker Telephone

An electrical device used in Arkansas, which was attached to inmate’s genitals and delivered severe electrical shocks as a form of punishment/torture

Hudson v. McMillian

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that injuries to an inmate need not to be serious to constitute a constitutional violation if the injury was gratuitous

When was Hudson v. McMillian?

1992

Today, the incidence of excessive force is ____ common, but it is still used in some institutions

Less

Give me the details and facts about the case of Inmate John Edwards Charlotte Penitentiary in 1997

• An HIV positive inmate killed his ex-wife and her companion, and subsequently went to prison where he bit a corrections officer

• Upon transfer to Charlotte Prison in Florida, he was beaten by numerous guards for extended periods of time, and denied appropriate medical treatment

• As a result of the abuse, Edwards attempted suicide by cutting his wrists where he was then moved to a psychiatric ward and shackled

• Edwards ultimately bled to death over a 12-hour period

• 10 people arrested, 14 lost their jobs, 3 told the truth and received probation and community service, and the 7 who denied everything were acquitted

• Jurors allegedly celebrated with officers after verdict

Who has more difficult responsibilities, local jail officers or state prison officers?

Local jail officers in many respects

Describe the jail population

Transitory and often unstable

How do some offenders come into jail?

Intoxicated, suffer from undiagnosed diseases or psychiatric conditions, or suicidal

Is visitation more frequent in a jail or a prison?

Jail

Are family issues more problematic in a jail or a prison?

Jail

What does the constant activity and chaotic environment of a jail create?

Unique ethical dilemmas

Violence-Prone Correctional Officers

Use the role of correctional officer to act out an authoritarian role

Time-Servers Correctional Officers

Serve time in prison much the same as most inmates do (trying to avoid trouble and hoping nothing goes wrong on their shift)

Counselor Correctional Officers

Seek to go beyond their job description; perceive their role as inmate counselor/helper